Here it is!

Amy Adams in her Proenza Schouler gown. Unfortunately she didn't wear the other dress we had made for her for her performance - no word as to why. This dress is has elements taken from the Fall 2008 show, the picture below illustrates the folds that P.S. used throughout the collection. I especially like this photo because you can see the folds on the back of the dress on the model walking away from the camera. I have plans soon to sketch out what exactly the pattern for these pieces look like, and post them -- a fun little folding puzzle, and exactly what I love about patternmaking.


Anyway, those folds are incorporated into the hem of Amy's evening gown, although they are a little hard to make out. The bodice of the dress is pure classic (can you say that about a line that's barely 5 years old?) Proenza Schouler, a style that runs throughout their collections.

More unrelated to fashion stuff

I spent yesterday at the memorial for my Grandma's sister Patricia. She is now the third person in my family to have died this year. She had been fading for a while but it still doesn't make it fun. My Grandma was the youngest of four sisters and now the last one left. If you still have grandparents go visit them. These people are wonderful and if you need another excuse they probably know more about, sewing, knitting, or wood working than you.
On a much happier note I got to see my cousin Gavin who might be my favorite human being. He turned four a little over a week ago and is a crazy amount of fun. We played with my mother's chickens and I taught him to use my camera. He took some wonderful photos.

This first one is of Gavin and I.
And the next ones are ones Gavin took.




Standing from left to right is Linda, Cathy, the man in the back you can't see is Tom (Linda's husband), my mother's other cousin whose name I'm embarassed to admit that I've forgoten, my mother Leslie, her brother Epic, and my sister Olivia and I in front.


This one is a photo of the whole clan, many of which I met yesterday. If you look closely you can see Gavin hiding between the two ladys in front, standing next to his dad Epic. This one wasn't taken by Gavin, obviously.

Addendum

As a follow up to Hannah's most recent posts I would like everyone to note that I have added On the Runway to the side bar so you don't have to bother google with it. I also looked up Amy Adams on Wikapedia because I didn't know who she was either. According to them she is a barely known actress who grew up mormon, worked at Hooters, and is best known for her role in Junebug. However the only place I've ever seen her is in Talladega nights. You may also know her from her occasional role as Katy on the Office. Most recently she's been in such illustrious movies as Night at the Museum 2.

Dressing the Oscars

Alert! Nicolas Caito Inc. is dressing Amy Adams for the Oscars tomorrow night, via Proenza Schouler, who designed the dresses. Until last week I wasn't even sure who Amy Adams was, but that's beside the point - I can't wait to scour the web's best-dressed pages after the event (I'll be working tomorrow and won't watch the show). She's wearing two dresses, one to present in, and one during her performance of a song from her movie. Both are beautiful and complicated and although I had only a small part in one of them, it was fun to watch the take shape. More to come soon, I'll put pictures up when I find them.

models, etc

I copied this from Cathy Horyn's NY Times blog, On the Runway, which, by the way, if you want fashion that gets seriously analytical and intellectual (which I often do) is the best fashion blog out there....
Anyway, since working backstage at Peter Som, I've been a little fascinated with models in their total alien-esque-ness. They're such tiny little creatures; in photos they look really thin, but in real life they're not just thin, they're miniscule in a way that took me aback. It may also be that I'm taller than most of them - the model I was dressing was barely my height in her Louboutin's. Some friends of mine asked me later if working with models in any way makes me insecure about my body and proportion, and I was surprised at how quickly I answered "No". Their size and proportion makes them seem so childlike that the idea of being insecure or jealous etc, is really just -- innapropriate? It hadn't even occured to me until he asked me the question.
Now I've gone off on a tangent and really all I meant to do was post this funny little bit from Cathy Horyn:

"I arrived in Paris from Milan last evening, on a flight with perhaps 20 models, including Lily D and Coco Rocha, and nearly half of them carried stuffed animals in their arms. It’s a strange sight to be standing at baggage claim watching ordinary travelers stare at giraffes with teddy bears and blue stuffed dogs."

misc.

Having a few extra minutes, i feel inclined to share a couple of recent non-fashion related discoveries:

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. This is the best new music I've found in ages. Completely in love. It fits my new Brooklyn environment the same way the new Radiohead and Ratatat fit my long Staten Island commutes.

And Cannonball Press, based in Brooklyn, has slews of nyc printmakers, among my favorites are Bill McRight, John Bartlett and some of Martin Mazorra....even better is that a print is only $20-$25...art buying for my income bracket!!




Corn Cobs and Radio by John Bartlett, Fine Feathers by Martin Mazorra

men coats and awesome pockets

I wanted to comment on the awesome nature of pockets on mens coats. These are two examples that I've come across lately that seem like a nice blend of form and function. I love the essential masculine look of them. I stole the last image from the sartorialist. I like the more modern look of the zipper on Han's coat but I love the almost military feel of this jacket.

Click on an image...

I just discovered that you can click on the photos we have on here, and see the pictures bigger. Brilliant! I had no idea, and was just lamenting how hard it was to see the details of the clothes...

Also, Style.com has a headline right now that reads "At Proenza Schouler, a Focus on Fit and Construction." Having helped fit and construct so much of their collection, it felt great to see that.

Sometimes the simplest pieces are actually the hardest

I had a really tough time with the sleeves on both of these jackets, probably for the most part because of my extremely limited draping experience. The armpit was so hard for me on the doublebreasted one, from Peter Som. It sounds silly, but it's so hard to see in there! If you lift the arm up it distorts everything, and you no longer know if the fit or how the fabric is lying is right, but if you don't lift it up, you can't tell what the hell is going on. I spent much too much time on the armpit and in the end learned that once again, intuition is best --


The raglan sleeves on this coat from Thakoon were difficult for me, because I was trying so hard to avoid that big flap of fabric at the armpit that so often happens with raglan sleeves. Also, the sleeves were supposed to be fairly wide, but fitted at the shoulder, and it was tough to achieve both of those without the sleeves becoming more of a flared shape than wide.
The sketch of this coat was actually more exciting to me than the final version is. The collar here seems to collapse on itself, but in the sketch it looked like a big fold-over collar, and the whole piece itself was much bigger and more Dior 1950's-esque (okay, I only say that because one of the inspiration photos I was given was an old Dior shot form the 50's - it was a gorgeous coat).

What about the final fabric on this one? I'm not sure about that herringbone running over the shoulder like that.

Two of my favorites from our studio this season:

The dress is Thakoon and the coat is Proenza Schouler. I didn't drape either of these, but pretty much everything that comes through our studio, we all work on in some part.


The hem of this dress is trimmed with a metal zipper -- zipper tape pulled apart, with the teeth facing out as if it were piping. Thakoon also did some short skirts with zipper trim, and all I could think was "So, when you wear tights in the cold of next winter, they'll be shredded immediately." My co-worker laughed at me and told me fashion isn't practical.

This was one of the garments they were working on at the fitting with Proenza Schouler that I got to go to. Originally the lower overlap on the sides of the coat was ruffled, which pushed the coat out and gave it a rounder shape, which was what I think Jack and Lazaro were going for. The ruffles looked like some sort of gills on an exotic fish though, and we were all rooting for them to take them off.

Peter Som's Show!





Two of the dresses I draped for Peter Som. They are basically the same asymetrical skirt with different bodices. The top of the taupe one looks complicated, but really, it was the skirt that was more difficult. There are three pleats on each hip, but on the left, they are all high, right at the high hip point, while on the right, they are lower, and spaced about 6 inches apart. Because of the asymetry, it was difficult to situate the pleats so that the three folds they create, that fall across the front of the skirt, lie in a nice clean line.
I wish there was a shot of the back of the dresses, because there's a lot going on. There is a long and also asymetrical bustle/train, as well as a giant bow off to the side. When I was draping the dresses, we couldn't help but make fun of the bustle/bow combination, but I have to admit, it looks a lot better in the final fabric than it did in muslin. That said, I have to agree with style.com when they said they were a little "too vintage-y." Maybe that's because the design came directly from a dress borrowed from one of our NYC vintage stores?

Pattern Magic, Finally!!!

I just recently bought these two books, after covetting them for ages, and can't recommend them enough. They're apparently only available in NYC and San Francisco at the Japanese bookstores Kinokuniya, which I hunted down and paid a visit to here in NYC (6th and 42nd, right across from Bryant Park). The store itself is incredible, the patternmaking and craft section blew my mind. Everything is in Japanese, but the photos are beautiful, and you can get the idea of things easily enough. Their design sensibility is so good, clean and simple, but still really interesting and innovative.


I have only made a couple of things from these books so far and they've all been mock-ups, no finished projects yet. When I complete something, I'll post a picture or two.

Proenza Pre-Fall

Here are a few pieces from Proenza Schouler's Pre-Fall collection that I neglected to post months ago -- this is what we were working on when I first arrived in NYC.
Tomorrow I should have bunches of pictures from the runway shows today